Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

82 Chapter Ten The Twilight’s Last Gleaming 1901 A brief paragraph in the Daily Express was drawn by Richardson to the attention of the Surrey committee. It followed a report that any prospect of a boat race between joint Yale/Harvard and Oxford/Cambridge Universities would need, because of the English universities’ involvement in cricket, to be deferred until the autumn: We understand that Tom Richardson, whatever be his success with Surrey during the coming season, intends to make the present his last summer of first-class cricket. At times during last season, notably against Essex at Leyton and against Sussex at Brighton, the latter on a perfect wicket, Richardson bowled with all his old skill, and there is some ground for the opinion that if his heart ‘were in it’ and he trained, he might restore and retain those powers which made him the greatest and most untiring of all fast bowlers. 193 The committee decided to ‘recommend him to take no proceedings’. 194 Match-winning performances were now less frequent than they had been in earlier years, though one such was against the touring South Africans. His six wickets (for 50) in the first innings were six of the first seven in the batting order and his five for 75 in the second saw the county to a 59- run win. Cricket saw some synthesis between Richardson and Lohmann’s protégé, the rising Jimmy Sinclair, both in the batsman-bowler duel and as contributors to their respective bowling attacks: Sinclair... made the best use of his height and strength and played Richardson early and well … No one could make any stand against Mr Sinclair, who was as effective as Richardson had been. 195 It was a fair comparison. Against Richardson’s eleven for 125 in the match, Sinclair had thirteen for 153. Richardson’s best return that year was seven for 89 in the August Bank Holiday fixture at the The Oval and although at 23.25 runs per wicket, his average was higher than in the glory years, 159 wickets and ten five- wicket innings were testimony to an effectiveness that was still there, if less consistently so than in his earlier career. Only Wilfred Rhodes with 1,565.1 bowled more than his 1,293.4 overs. 193 28 March 1901 194 Surrey CCC minutes 17 April 1901 195 11 July 1901